Dansens relevans i folkmusikutbildningar

Sammanfattning: The Relevance of Dance in Folk Music Education The aim of this study was to investigate why and how dance and dance teaching can be relevant in educational programmes in folk music in Sweden. Many of these programmes include dance within them and that fact, in combination with my observation that there is an underlying cultural assumption that dance and music belong together, inspired this research. I wished to look at the function of dance within folk music programmes, and music teachers’ observations of how dance affects their students’ playing. The study has been conducted through qualitative interviews with four music teachers from different institutions, covering three themes: the purpose(s) of including dance in this kind of education, if and how they can see that the students have use for the dance knowledge in their playing, and how they look at the connection between dance and music in this genre. The result shows that there are several reasons for teaching dance as a part of educational programmes in folk music and also that the music teachers themselves use references to dance in their music teaching. These reasons can give dance pedagogues information about how some music teachers think dance is relevant and can be used in the planning of dance teaching. In conclusion, there is a discussion of how this study can be a part of understanding and developing pedagogy within the folk music genre.